A third of nurses working alone in the community have been assaulted or harassed in last two years

More than one third of UK nurses working alone have been assaulted or harassed
in the last two years according to a survey released today by the Royal College
of Nursing (RCN). The survey of nearly 1,000 nurses also shows that over half
(52%) of nurses working alone thought that the threat of violence or abuse
has increased over the same period.

The survey results are published on the same day the RCN launch the “You're
not alone” campaign which calls on the government to honour its commitment
to protect lone workers through funding training and technology to call in
help quickly.

In March 2005 the then Health Secretary of State John Reid said he would “do
everything within my power to stop NHS staff suffering from violence and abuse” and
would work to provide lone workers with the 'Identicom' system which enables
the individual to discreetly call for emergency assistance and records verbal
abuse for use in court . Two years on only three percent of trusts have invested
in such a system.

Speaking today RCN General Secretary Dr Peter Carter said:

“ Attacks
on nurses, whether physical or verbal, are completely unacceptable and the
results
of this survey are extremely disappointing.

_ Two years ago the government committed
to a system that will dramatically increase the ability to record evidence
of attacks and give nurses the ability
to instantly call in support in the event of an emergency; two years on from
this promise the situation has worsened and the system has not been implemented.

_ The change from care based in hospitals
to the community will mean more and more nurses working alone, caring for
patients in their homes and
away from other staff. We need to make sure that nurses working alone are properly
protected, fully supported and feel secure, that's why we are launching this
campaign. ”

The survey also found:

Approximately 85% of respondents spent more than a quarter
of their time working alone away from colleagues. In addition, more than
half (53%) stated that they worked outside of normal office hours.

Approximately
two-thirds of respondents thought that a mobile device disguised as an
ID card holder, together with 24/7 monitoring and training,
would increase their confidence to work alone.

Two-thirds of respondents
(66%) stated that their employer did not know their whereabouts or only
'sometimes' knew their whereabouts when they
were working.

More than four-fifths (82 %) stated that their employer
had a lone worker policy, although of these, 17.% had not been provided
with a copy of
it.

More than a third of respondents had been assaulted or harassed
in the last two years and 6% stated that they had experienced a physical
assault.
Not all incidents were reported to managers; indeed only 45% of verbal assaults
were reported to managers and only 86% of physical assaults. More than a
quarter of physical assaults were regarded as racial in nature.

When
respondents had experienced an incident and reported it to their managers,
they were most commonly offered immediate support (51%) or counselling
and debriefing (23%).

Most commonly, lone workers used a mobile phone
for safety, although it was not unusual for these to be their own and not
supplied by their employer.
Identicom was used by only 3% of respondents.

Almost a fifth of respondents
had not received any conflict management training at all. Almost half had
not received any such training in the last
two years.

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